Matanglawin: Animal Mommies and Babies

By Grace Sucgang, Multimedia Producer, Matanglawin

Can you imagine life without mothers?

You have to admit, it would be pretty difficult since without mothers, where would we be?

This is why Kuya Kim took the road less travelled to pay tribute to some of the most dedicated animal mothers and learn how they have adapted to be able to take care of their offspring in a world where the fittest survive.

Two Bidabest Kids also tried to prove that they can be caring “mothers” to some of the most feared animals like tigers and crocodiles. Were they able to handle the challenges presented to them or did they buckle at Kuya Kim’s first challenge which was to fly like an eagle across Zoobic Safari’s field, 40 feet from the ground?

For Deydey Amansec and Barbie Sabino, it was a piece of cake because these child stars from the show E-Boy will do anything to get a chance to see the baby tiger that Kuya Kim promised to show them.

At Zoobic Safari, there are 30 tigers and according to what the Bidabest Kids learned, the latest addition to the tiger brood were two female cubs which were born just last April 25.

Bidabest Kids Deydey Amansec and Barbie Sabino will take on Kuya Kim’s challenges to learn all about mommy animals!

The kids got to “meet and greet” the rest of the Tiger family when they visited the Tiger Safari where, accompanied by adults, they got to feed tigers with chicken.

It’s quite surprising that a tiger can eat at least 10 chickens a day or 27 kilograms of meat--an equivalent of around 300 burgers! Even growing kids’ appetites would not be able to handle that.

What could, though, is the tiger of the sea, or the tiger shark which is also known as the garbage can of the sea because it eats anything in its path. Their appetites are so voracious, that even while inside the mother shark, the babies try to eat each other and only those who survive the feeding frenzy are born.

Similar to their appetites are those of crocodiles because once they know it’s feeding time, they will not stop until they get their jaws on the pieces of meat dangling in front of them. It’s a good thing that Deydey and Barbie had a couple of feet of string where the chicken pieces were attached as well as a rail between them and the hungry reptiles.

However, crocodiles also have a soft side when it comes to their children. When a crocodile family is threatened, crocs put the little ones inside their mouths so they can carry them off to safety.

Gastric Brooding frogs also protected their young the way crocodiles do, before they went extinct way back in the 1980s.

Other animals that use their mouths for parenting duties are birds. Instead of feeding their young with milk, like goats, they chew food and spit the mush into the mouths of their chicks.

All in all, there are about 50 baby animals in Zoobic Safari and it’s a pity that Deydey and Barbie didn’t get to see them all because after bottle-feeding goats and bathing piglets, they had to say goodbye to Zoobic Safari because Kuya Kim had one last special mission for them: tell their mothers how much they love them.

With that done, it was Kuya Kim’s turn to explore and look at the ostrich nest that he discovered. Ostriches or ratites, since they can’t fly, build their nests on the ground. The mother and father ostrich take turns guarding and keeping the eggs warm because it’s more advantageous for light-colored females to blend in nature during the day while darker-colored males can blend in during the night for camouflage. Each ostrich egg is roughly the equivalent of a dozen chicken eggs and weighs 1.5 kilos.

If Kuya Kim is found out by the Mommy ostrich, he’ll be in big trouble because they are territorial creatures!

Like the ostrich, the emerald tree skink also makes its nest on the ground despite its nature of being an arboreal reptile. The difference, however, is that the skink’s eggs are a whole lot smaller, but nowhere as small as a Bee Hummingbird’s egg which is as small as a coffee bean!

Kuya Kim with an emerald tree skink

But did you know that not all eggs are hatched outside of the mother? Anacondas for one, belong to the group of animals that are ovoviviparous, or those that have eggs but when the babies come out, they are already out of their shells. Anacondas are able to have 40 snakelets per birth, though not all of them will survive.

Survival is always an issue when it comes to motherhood. Other animals ignore the weakest or smallest of their kids because they’re the most likely to die. However, some breeders eye these small creatures or runts as they are called, because when you breed two runts together, you get the teacup breed.

What’s so special about teacups, you ask? It’s basically about novelty and cuteness because the teacup breed, whether a cat, dog or pig, can fit right inside a teacup. Be warned though before you consider them as pets because teacups are also frailer and sicklier than the regular breed. They are also costlier because a teacup Pomeranian can fetch a price between P20,000-P30,000.

As Kuya Kim always says, before taking in a pet, you’d better be sure you can take care of them. Any tips for aspiring “mothers” to their pets?

A Chinese soft-shelled turtle

Did you know that the African Clawed Frog can lay 500-2,000 eggs?

Instead of nine months, pigs or wild boars only carry their babies inside their wombs for three months.